Cadaver - Mirrorsoft RRP œ24.95
                      (Arcade Adventure)

So here we are again then. I fell for it. She reckoned that the
review I did last year went down so well that I had to do another
this year. I happen to know who it was who liked it last year
and I'm relying on you, Graham, to tell the truth this time then I
won't be so easily conned next year. Heaven knows I've got enough
to do ....

I really don't feel too qualified to do this because I'm by no
means an adventure expert. I do know what I like though so here
goes.

What do the publishers have to say about the game?

         'Cadaver is an isometric 3D arcade adventure,
         played using a joystick and keys. As Karadoc
         the dwarf, you explore the murky dungeons and
         eerie corridors of Castle Wulf, interacting
         with hundreds of objects, people and puzzles.
         The ultimate objective is to kill the
         necromancer, Dianos, but, as is the tradition
         with bounty hunters, what you find along the
         way is yours to keep.'

The game comes boxed with two disks and a 19 page combined story
and destruction booklet written in micro-type (the old eyes ain't
as good as they was!)  and a certificate for you to send off to
Mirrorsoft when you complete the game.

Search out then plug in the old joystick and insert disk one.  The
Bitmap Brothers logo is followed by a pleasant screen showing an
ancient scroll between two very nice flickering candles and
accompanied by some drum and chanting music as featured in the
best epic movies of the fifties. The story - complete with the
occasional spelling/keying error - slowly scrolls up the screen.
It would cycle around for ever but as soon as you press a key the
game starts to load. It offers a choice of English, French or
German then requests disk two.  It takes a while to load and
expand the data but eventually the isometric screen display
appears.

The isometric display means that you're looking down on a diamond
shaped field of play in which north is at an angle of 45 degrees
right of vertical. West is 45 degrees left of vertical.  To move
north you must push the joystick forward. To move west, push it
left. It is as confusing as it sounds. The first screen is pretty
enough.  A cavern, with Karadoc the hero standing next to his
holed rowing boat at the edge of a lake. An unpleasant creature of
the deep shows its head above the water from time to time. A
number of items including a pickaxe and a diary are scattered
around the ground.

At the bottom left of the screen are six squares which fill with
icons under certain conditions - more of which in a moment. At the
bottom right are four boxes. The top one shows your current state
of health, the next shows the day (starting from one), then comes
the name of any object you're touching and finally the name of the
current location.

Move Karadoc until he touches an object, the diary for example,
and four icons appear at the bottom left. The meanings of the
icons are not self evident so it is necessary to consult the
destructions. The next problem is that the icons in the booklet
are much less clear than those on screen so it's all but impossible
to identify which is which. It seems that these icons mean TAKE,
PULL, JOYSTICK and READ. At other times there are further icons
for SEARCH, DROP, DRINK, HOLD, CAST SPELL, SWITCH, PRESS, OPEN,
INSERT, EAT and GIVE.

Press fire on the joystick to highlight the first icon then
activate other icons by moving the joystick up, down or sideways.
Press fire again to activate an icon. I take the diary, a pickaxe
and a silver coin.  Touching fungi or water is bad news since
they sap your strength until you fade away completely. Worth
saving every now and then I should think.

There's a doorway to the north which leads to a tunnel. Operating
a switch unlocks the door through to another tunnel. This one
has exits to east and west and a life-sapping pool to the north
(yes, of course I've found it!).

Grabbing a bag of stones near the door I move out of the east
door. In the next tunnel I come across something that looks like
one of those wartime mines they have painted red at the seaside
for collecting money for the local sailors' mission or whatever.
This one is a bit hostile and if given half a chance will kill (of
course it has - what did you expect?). Press the SPACE bar and you
display the last item you picked up in a box at the bottom right
of the screen. Move the joystick to cycle through all the items
you picked up. I select the stone bag then activate the HOLD icon.
Press the fire button to throw stones at the throbbing landmine
until it expires.

Needless to say, I didn't suss out that business with throwing the
stones on my own. In fact, after a couple more moves I ran out of
ideas completely. Luckily, a recent magazine featured a map with
53 locations from level 1 (this was part one of a four part
article so I guess there are around 200 locations). Using the map
and the fairly explicit help supplied with it I was able to get
around a bit more.

All in all the game left me a bit cold. The screens looked nice
enough and everything worked OK (once you'd worked out what the
icons meant and got used to moving the joystick north to move old
Karadoc to the north east of the screen). It just seemed a bit
boring. Apart from its technical competence I couldn't really see
much to commend it over games like Alien 8 and Knight Lore which
impressed us for a while on the old Spectrum all those years ago.
If it's your scene then good luck but I wouldn't recommend it if
you're looking for excitement. I'd just as soon sit in front of the
telly and check out the inside of my eyelids!

                                               Alan